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“Right?” Charlie said, splaying out a hand as if to thank me for agreeing.
Darcy glanced back at me dryly. “With Charlie, everything revolves around food.”
“Seriously, every time I hear it, I start craving a Reuben sandwich,” Charlie went on. “Oh my God, please tell me you guys have some pumpernickel rye bread at your apartment. And some corned beef, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Thousand Island dressing? Please!”
“Nope,” Wick seemed delighted to answer. “Not even one of those things.”
The teen deflated with disappointment and mumbled, “Figures.” Only to bump her arm into mine. “So what is it like to date Pumpernickel?”
“Uh…” Feeling put on the spot, I scratched at my suddenly itchy neck. “I don’t know. It was okay at first. I guess. He was nice to me. Flattering, you know. He’d make me smile and laugh. That was cool. But then he’d do things—small, irritating things—that were just...mean to people. And I’d get so mad at him, which made me feel bad for judging him like I did and letting those little things bother me. By the end, I was this big ball of guilt for not being a loyal, good enough girlfriend for him, because I constantly wanted him to change, and improve. I wanted him to stop being so...him, which felt wrong of me, you know. I was supposed to accept him for what he was, right? I mean, I’m not perfect by any means; why did I expect him to be?” I shrugged lamely. “I don’t know. I guess it doesn’t matter now. After I caught him cheating—snap—all that went away. So now I just feel like a stupid idiot and completely sick to my stomach over the fact I ever allowed such a douchebag to even touch me. What’s worse, he makes a really awful ex.”
I told them about the STD rumor Topher was currently stringing around campus about me.
Wick glanced back at me in surprise. “Seriously? I hadn’t heard about that. Damn, but he never stops being an asshole, does he?”
I shrugged. “Yeah. It sucks.”
“I would totally key his car for a dick move like that,” Darcy decided.
“I’ve tried to think up some kind of retaliation,” I agreed. “But...” I unconsciously met Wick’s gaze in the rearview mirror when he glanced up, and guilt assailed me. “Nothing’s panned out yet.”
“Oh, hey. I just watched this movie where the girl left a used condom full of fake semen and an article of her clothing on her ex’s bed to make it look like she’d done some other guy on his mattress. It was awesome. He was so pissed.”
“Damn. I would be too,” Darcy agreed before she nodded at me. “That would be a good one for you, right there.”
I didn’t say anything. Wick remained mute, which made me only feel worse.
Thank God, Izzy spoke up and changed the subject, asking the others something about their parents, because I might’ve started crying if we’d kept on with this line of conversation.
As my relationship with Topher was forgotten, I focused on the back of Wick’s head, or rather the side of his face whenever he glanced into the passenger’s seat whenever Darcy spoke. Each scruff of hair on his jaw seemed to be silhouetted in the glow of the truck’s dashboard.
Watching him once again sent me to my calm place, so much so that when “Good Feeling,” by Flo Rida came on, and both Charlie and Izzy stopped whatever they were discussing to cheer on either side of me, hollering Wick’s name, I was startled back into realizing his sisters were still around.
Wick shook his head and sent Darcy a dry look. “You just had to add this to your playlist, didn’t you?”
“You know it.” Jabbing at his shoulder, she chuckled while Izzy and Charlie started chanting, “Wickham, Wickham, Wickham.”
“Nope,” he told them. “I’m not doing it.”
Charlie jostled his seat from behind. “Yes, you are.”
“Come on, Wick. Do it. Do it,” Izzy begged.
I glanced around at everyone prodding him on and shook my head. “Is this your song or something?” I had to ask.
He glanced over his shoulder at me and shook his head. “I sang along to it one time.”
“It’s the song he always puts in his earbuds and listens to when he’s warming up for a football game,” Izzy added.
Wick sliced her with an odd frown. “H
ow do you know that?”
Darcy snorted and reached for the volume. “If I were you, I’d be more surprised if Nancy Drew journalism major back there didn’t know something. Now, hit it, bro. Work those pipes.”
Chuckling, Wick shook his head as Darcy inched the sound louder.
From the speakers, Flo Rida sang, “I get a feeling that I never, never, never, never had before…”
